Red Poppies Campaigns Volume I: The Battles for Ypres

by

Compass Games

 

 Ypres, or to the British troops 'Wipers', was either the seminal battle where the British Army found out how to win the war, or just another 'Blood Tub'. There are probably as many books written about the battles of the Ypres salient as there have been about the Battle of the Somme. This is a relatively new game from Compass games. I have been looking at this title longingly since it was released. I picked it up during Compass Games winter sale. This is just going to be an unboxing instead of a full review. I will do the full review when time permits. 

 The rulebook is in color, and also is printed in large print. It has only fifteen pages of rules. For such a large game with many pieces, I was somewhat surprised. Considering that it has rules for off board artillery and creeping barrages, among many others, it came as a pleasant surprise. The rulebook also contains three pages of examples of play. Then comes a half page of more instructions for playing the scenarios, followed by two and a half pages of rules for playing the campaigns. The following ten pages are taken up by the setups and instructions for each scenario and campaign. These are:

Scenario I, Eating Fire at Gheluvet - 1914

Scenario II, The Volcano In Flanders - 1915

Scenario III, Unfrozen at Frezenberg - 1915

Scenario IIII, Hot Time at Houge  - 1915

Campaign Game I,  Gheluvet - 1914

Campaign Game II, Fezenberg - 1915

Campaign Game III, Menin Road - 1917

 The rulebook ends with a nice touch. It has three pages with both the front and back of all of the counter sheets.

 The game comes with two, two sided terrain charts with a sequence of play breakdown on the other side.

 The turn record track is its own sheet, and not on the map.

 The games counters are well designed to be able to see and read the information quickly. There is no embellishment to them, just very utilitarian in their look. I am not knocking them, only explaining how the counters look. For a game about the death machine that was WWI, they fit the subject fine. These are the counters:

  

 The game has some novel rules that help it simulate WWI battle. They have a 'Mass' rule that facilitates command and control and a rule about 'Blobs' that deals with infiltration tactics. As mentioned, there are rules about off board artillery, onboard artillery, and mortars. The later scenarios also have rules for gas, and everything else you would expect in a WWI game.

 The game follows a novel approach in that the three maps are all of the same area, just shown differently for the three years of 1914,1915, and 1917. As you view the maps through the years you actually see the effects of the war on the landscape until you get to the almost frightening 1917 map. The Ypres salient was one of the few places even in the trench system that had major battles in different years. For those of you who read about the battles I wanted to showcase some of the places from the maps that we all know. The maps are all 22"x34", and they are of the open hex-side type.

                                         Hooge 1914  

                                              Hooge 1917

 The game is playable by one to two players with a rating of eight out of ten for solitaire play. The innovative rules of the game look to be some of the best to represent the real tactical challenges of WWI. I am looking forward to playing the 1917 campaign first. I will also be doing a review of the actual game play.

Robert

The War in the North Sea

The Royal Navy and The Imperial German Navy 1914-1918 

by

Quintin Barry 

 Another Quintin Barry book from Helion&Company, and again it is an excellent one. This follows all of the history of the war in the North sea during WWI. Of course, Jutland is there, but it is by no means the only subject covered. It is also full of pictures of the ships and men that made up the British and German forces. The book is not sparing on maps either, so that you can easily follow the book through all of the engagements and the background history of them.

 The book starts with a history of the British strategic planning. This is mostly a discussion of what type of a blockade the British would use, a close one or a wide one. A close one would have afforded the German navy many more engagements to try and pare the Royal Navy down. By choosing a wide blockade and doing sweeps with larger forces, the chance of the German Imperial Navy to pounce on small groups of the British Navy and even up the odds were much more distant. The author continues with a look back on the birth and growth of the German High Seas Fleet. Mr. Barry then starts to describe the various encounters between the two combatants, starting with Heligoland Bight and on to Dogger Bank. Jutland, as is natural, takes up a good amount of the author's writing. He goes deeply into the reasons for the battle and the actual history of the gigantic clash. Then he presents both sides of the British arguments about who did what, and when, during the battle and if it was the correct move for that admiral to take. There has been a hundred year fight going on between the proponents of Jellicoe and Beatty. Each side believes that his admiral was correct in his actions and that the other was wrong. It also boils over into whether Jellicoe was too timid during the engagement. Mr. Barry shows that some of the recollections of Beatty and his actual statements at times are not in fact what actually happened historically. Beatty, by virtually forgetting about the tremendously powerful Fifth battle squadron of fast battleships, himself lost a good chance to do some damage to the German High Seas Fleet. Jellicoe who was  once described as the "man who could lose the war in an afternoon", is usually shown in books to be very afraid of torpedo and mine attacks on his fleet. This book shows that every action Jellicoe took that day was already discussed with the Admiralty. One example in particular was turning away his fleet  from a torpedo attack. Torpedoes were still in their infancy, but a few lucky hits might have made all the difference. 

Iron Duke circa 1914

 As far as to who 'won' Jutland the author does not feel that it was unequivocally a British victory. There are many pros and cons to each side of the argument, and the author shows them in all of their facets. Mr. Barry also puts paid the untruths that the German High Seas Fleet never sortied again, and actually did attempt a few major sorties after Jutland.

 

SMS Seydlitz

 The book continues to describe the  submarine threat against both naval and merchant navies. He also delves into the fledgling naval aviation with descriptions of the Zeppelin and aircraft and their uses in the North sea. The Germans felt that their Zeppelins would really give them an edge in fighting the British Navy. It was to be a misplaced hope.

 Everything you could wish to know about WWI in the North Sea is here. The author once again shows how well history can be written. The book itself is a marvel of how to write history correctly and enjoyably. Thank you once again Helion&Company and Casemate Publishers for an excellent book. If you are are interested in the battle of Koniggratz or the Franco-Prussian war, please see his books on those subjects. I did a review on Volume 1 of the Franco-Prussian War here: http://www.awargamersneedfulthings.co.uk/2016/11/the-franco-prussian-war-1870-71-volume.html


Robert


Book: The War in The North Sea
Author: Quintin barry
Publisher: Helion&Company
Distributor: Casemate Publishers